Partnership for Mental Health Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

描述(由申请者提供)：我们建议建立一个名为撒哈拉以南非洲精神卫生发展伙伴关系(PAM-D)的中心。该中心旨在建立一个基础设施，以发展撒哈拉以南非洲(SSA)的精神卫生(MH)研究能力，并通过在该地区开展与公共卫生相关的创新MH研究，推动全球MH科学的发展。该中心将汇集尼日利亚、南非、加纳、肯尼亚、塞拉利昂和利比里亚六个国家的医疗机构，以及来自美国和英国机构的杰出研究人员，并与政府部门和非政府组织合作。它将由一个由国际知名研究人员组成的多学科小组组成，他们对非洲复杂和特殊的精神健康状况的直接经验将用于解决与精神健康政策优先次序低、人力资源极度匮乏、社区意识差、对精神健康状况认识不足和对这些疾病治疗不足有关的各种需求。 目标包括：(1)将服务提供商、政策制定者和在全球卫生领域具有专业知识的研究人员聚集在一起，创建撒哈拉以南卫生研究中心，该中心将把自己确立为支持该地区研究能力建设和创新卫生服务发展的地区中心，最初专注于扩大对患有最具致残性精神健康问题之一--精神病的人的服务，以及(2)制定和实施有针对性的培训和辅导计划，在广泛的精神卫生专业人员中建设精神卫生研究能力，以期创造和支持一大批创新精神卫生研究的专家，以满足该地区的精神健康需求。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We propose to develop a hub by the name Partnership for Mental Health Development In Sub-Saharan Africa (PaM-D). The hub is aimed at creating an infrastructure to develop mental health (MH) research capacity in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and to advance global MH science by conducting innovative public health-relevant MH research in the region. The hub will bring together institutions in six countries in great need for major improvements in their health systems: Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, Sierra Leone and Liberia with outstanding researchers from institutions in the US and UK, in partnership with government departments and non-governmental organizations. It will consist of a multidisciplinary team of internationally renowned researchers whose direct experience about the complex and peculiar mental health situations in Africa will be channeled towards addressing the diverse needs associated with low policy priority for mental health, extreme paucity of human resources, poor community awareness, low recognition of mental health conditions and under-treatment of those conditions. The aims include: (1) bringing together service providers, policy makers, and researchers with expertise in global MH to create a Sub-Saharan MH Research Hub that will establish itself as a regional center supporting research capacity-building and innovative MH service development in the region, focusing, initially, on expanding service for persons suffering from one of the most disabling mental health problems: psychosis and (2) developing and implementing targeted programs of training and mentoring that build mental health research capacity in a broad range of mental health professionals with a view to creating and supporting a critical mass of experts for innovative mental health research to address the region's mental health needs.